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George Cooley

Health can be measured in many ways: from mental health, to life expectancy, freedom of movement, lifestyle and behaviour. While health in Glasgow has been improving over the last century and while Glaswegians are now living longer than ever, the city still has one of the poorest health profiles of any UK city. The average Glaswegian man’s life expectancy at birth is 3.7 years less than that in the rest of Scotland; for women it is 2.3 years less.

There is no one solution to this persistent societal problem. Increasing regular engagement with sport and physical activity can make a substantial change over a lifetime. Acknowledging that gyms can be intimidating environments, this scheme is concerned with removing obstacles to physical exercise. The design focuses on how more sensitively designed circulation and varied spaces can increase the confidence of building users to return more frequently. The project re-imagines a variety of spaces to create a variety of unique spaces to encourage regular physical activity on each participant’s own terms.

The scheme populates a series of railway arches under the derelict junction for St. Enoch Railway Station, as well as constructing a new running track above ground level and traffic that loops over the building’s entrance and across the River Clyde.